22 Oct 2010 / 06:05
The Municipality of Pristina has begun to tackle illegal structures, including part of the city’s Grand Hotel, while Mayor Isa Mustafa says the legalisation process for buildings without permits is progressing well.
Lawrence Marzouk
Pristina’s post-war construction boom is being reined in by the city’s municipality with a tough line on new illegal constructions and the legalization of older structures without planning permission.
Pristina Municipality hopes to bring an end to unregulated building through its process of legalizing currently unlicensed premises built before August 19. It estimates that 70 per cent of new apartment blocks built in the city since 1999 do not have a licence.
The municipality announced on September 1 that any building which did not feature on satellite images of the city, taken at 10.30am on August 19, would be destroyed while those built prior to this date can be legalised.
And in the past two weeks, the municipality has taken steps to demolish unregulated buildings. Last Thursday, Pristina’s town hall announced it would remove pillars being built on the Grand Hotel to support an extra floor as the owners did not have permission. Overnight, builders working on the site demolished the structure themselves.
And on Sunday, the municipality moved to demolish part of an illegal building in Sunny Hill after the owner had failed to comply with an order to stop work.
Mayor Isa Mustafa said he was pleased so far with the response to calls for people to legalise buildings which did not have planning permission.He said: “There are still a few weeks until the official end of opportunity to apply and I believe that the time available will be enough for people to apply.”
A campaign of awareness-raising was launched this week to ensure that the message is received by all citizens. “The whole process is to the benefit of citizens because they legalise their buildings but people who will refuse to engage in this process will have their buildings demolished,” Mustafa said.
balkan insight
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου